1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a nail driving gun, more particularly to a cartridge assembly that is adapted to be connected to a nail-discharging plate of a nail driving gun and that is adapted to feed nails into a nail-discharging track formed in the nail-discharging plate in a stable manner.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a known nail driving gun, a nail feeding unit aligns a nail from a cartridge assembly with a nail impelling unit so as to discharge the nail via a nail-discharging track.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a conventional nail driving gun 10 is shown to include a gun housing 100, a nail-discharging plate 101 projecting forwardly from the gun housing 100 and formed with a nail-discharging track 102 extending in a longitudinal direction, and a cartridge assembly connected securely to a rear portion 101R of the nail-discharging plate 101 for supplying nails in succession into the nail-discharging track 102.
As illustrated, the cartridge assembly includes a left cartridge half 11, a right cartridge half 12, a plurality of urging members 16, a primary pusher 14, and a plurality of secondary pushers 15. The left cartridge half 11 has a left side face 113 formed with a plurality of retention grooves 111 adjacent to the rear portion 101R thereof and extending in a transverse direction relative to the longitudinal direction. A leading plate 13 is fixed on the left side face 113 of the left cartridge half 11 to form a leading chamber 13xe2x80x3 therebetween adjacent to a front portion 101F of the nail-discharging plate 101. The right cartridge. half 12 is coupled to the left cartridge half 11, and has a right side face 120 confronting and spaced apart from the left side face 113 to define a nail-receiving chamber 131 in alignment with and in spatial communication with the leading chamber 13xe2x80x3 (see FIG. 3). The leading chamber 13xe2x80x3 and the nail-receiving chamber 131 are in vertical alignment and in spatial communication with the nail-discharging track 102. The right side face 120 of the right cartridge half 12 is formed with a plurality of spaced apart spring-receiving grooves 121, each of which extends in the transverse direction and each of which is in spatial communication with a respective one of the retention grooves 111 in the left cartridge half 11 through the nail-receiving chamber 131. The urging members 16 are respectively disposed in the spring-receiving grooves 121 in the right cartridge half 12.
The primary pusher 14 is received movably in the leading chamber 13xe2x80x3, and is connected to a corresponding one of the urging members 16 so as to be urged to move in the transverse direction. Each of the secondary pushers 15 includes a nail-pushing plate 150 disposed in the nail-receiving chamber 131, and connected to a respective one of the urging members 16 so as to be urged to move in the transverse direction. Each of the nail-pushing plates 150 has a distal portion 150D extending into a respective one of the retention grooves 111 in the left cartridge half 11, a front end face 150F (see FIG. 3), and a rear end face 150R that is spaced apart from the front end face 150F of an adjacent one of the nail-pushing plates 150 to form a gap 13G (see FIG. 3) therebetween.
Referring to FIGS. 2 and 4, when a row of nails 20 is placed in the nail-receiving chamber 131 so as to be pushed upward toward the nail-discharging track 102 by the top ends of the pushers 14, 15, due to the presence of the gaps 13G between an adjacent pair of the nail-pushing plates 150, the nail 20 cannot be properly supported.
Therefore, the object of this invention is to provide a nail driving gun with a cartridge assembly that is adapted to support nails in a stable manner so as to overcome the aforementioned drawback that is generally associated with the conventional nail driving gun.
Accordingly, a cartridge assembly of the present invention is adapted to be connected to a nail-discharging plate of a nail driving gun for supplying nails into a nail-discharging track formed in the nail-discharging plate. The nail-discharging track extends in a longitudinal direction. The cartridge assembly includes a left cartridge half, a right cartridge half, a plurality of urging members, and a plurality of pushers. The left cartridge half is formed with a left side face. The right cartridge half is coupled to the left cartridge half, and has a right side face confronting and spaced apart from the left side face to define a nail-receiving chamber therebetween. The nail-receiving chamber is adapted to be in vertical alignment and in spatial communication with the nail-discharging track. The right side face of the right cartridge half is formed with a plurality of spaced apart spring-receiving grooves, each of which extends in a transverse direction relative to the longitudinal direction and each of which is in spatial communication with the nail-receiving chamber. The urging members are respectively disposed in the spring-receiving grooves. Each of the pushers includes a nail-pushing plate received movably in the nail-receiving chamber. The nail-pushing plates of the pushers are respectively connected to the urging members so as to be urged by the urging members to move in the transverse direction. Each of the nail-pushing plates has a cross-section extending in the longitudinal direction. The cross-section of each of the nail-pushing plates has a first portion aligned with a respective one of the spring-receiving grooves, and a second portion extending from the first portion in the longitudinal direction between two adjacent ones of the spring receiving grooves.